The Story of My Life Or Is It Yours?
by DramaticBook0000
Summary: After death, Kendrith gets a choice, he can carry on being dead or return as Shadow to help someone find their way through life. All he knows is the name, Maybeth. Maybeth is an ordinary (antisocial, completely awkward) girl... till Kendrith shows up. She is then thrown into the hurricane that is known as Middle School social circles.


**Hi everyone! This is my first story! Please leave a review to let me know what you guys think! I will be writing more to this story!**

Everyone has a background, mine just happens to be darker than most. You know how some people say that they would rather regret the things they did do rather than the things they didn't do? I was one of those people. I did everything that I could possibly do in one lifetime. And then suddenly, at the age of 25, my life ended. Nothing fancy happened then, the world continued on, and suddenly, my life had no meaning. I was amazed to see how little of an influence I had left on the world. I resigned myself to the fact that there was nothing I could do. Until, I was offered another chance. No, not rebirth, but the opportunity to help a young girl make good choices. Perhaps I should introduce myself before I tell my story. My name is Kendrith, and I am a shadow. I am that level between life and death, that shade between light and dark. I am a shadow, hidden from life, shielded from death.

When I died, I was given a choice, continue this path and let my meaningless life pass through the world, or, choose a different path, help a young girl find her way and leave her own unique mark on the world. I chose the latter. I was to watch over a girl named Maybeth. A strange name, but that was all I knew until the first time I saw her. As I found out, she was an orphan- her parents had left her on the doorstep of St. Angie's Home for Girls. She was unwanted, a social outcast. She had frizzy black hair that hid her ears and was always tied back in a low ponytail. She had these startling bright green eyes. But to me, the most striking thing was that she looked miserable.

She sat on her bed in the attic. The attic was a very small room, that was just big enough for a bed, which was opposite the door and a chair, hidden in the corner. She sat, with her hands on her lap looking down at them, like she had nothing to look forward to. When I walked into the room, I paused at the doorway and watched her for a good few minutes before she saw me. When she did, she jumped up frightened and took a few steps towards me before she paused. She shook her head trying to think, then proceeded to declared, rather loudly for such a quiet looking girl, "Who are you?! What are you doing here?! And how did you even get in here?!"

I leaned against the doorway trying to be casual, after all, there was no good way to explain this situation and answered her questions. "First, my name is Kendrith. Second, I was watching you. And third, I walked in. How are you doing?"

She shook her head vehemently, while backing away to her bed again. "No. You cannot be here. Strange men cannot be in my room! Now leave or I will call the dean!"

I stood up straight and ran one of my hands through my hair, this was not going to be easy at all. I sighed and said slowly, "If you call her, she won't see me. Only you can see me."

"Well, why don't I believe you?"

I snorted a little and smiled. "Probably because you think I am a strange man who snuck into your room."

She glared at me. "Yes, because that is exactly what you are. Now, if you do not leave I will call the dean!"

I leaned back against the door frame. If she wanted to play it tough, then tough. Very calmly I stated, "Go ahead, call her."

She glared at me for a good five seconds more before she broke eye contact and screamed, as loudly as she could. Now, let me tell you, even though I was just a shadow, that sound still pierced my ears and hurt more than almost anything I have ever experienced, and that includes my own death. I heard footsteps running up the stairs to the attic, where Maybeth and I were. I didn't move. An elderly woman, probably about 60-years-old, ran right past me and over to Maybeth, and asked worried and polite. "Is everything alright? I heard a scream."

As soon as the woman appeared, Maybeth seemed to shrink. It was very curious. She replied quietly and alarmed, "I thought I saw someone, a strange young man."

The elderly woman looked around, then declared, "I don't see anyone, it must have been your imagination. Now, I must go and finish making dinner."

Then, without waiting for a response she turned out of the room and left. Maybeth looked me right in the eye, a little startled now. I was now grinning a little, and in response, she said, "Great, now there is a strange man in my head."

I stood up, my smile diminishing as I remembered my old life. I replied quietly, "I'm not in your head; I did have a life before this you know."

She glared then started to pace a little. "I don't believe you. I made you up in my head because I was lonely. That is the ONLY possible explanation."

I cocked my head. "Really, could a figment of your imagination close the door?"

She took a step forward, towards me. "No, but you can't do that, because you are just part of my imagination."

My smirk appeared. "Ah, but I am not part of you."

And to demonstrate this, I grabbed the doorknob, and firmly yanked the door closed. Maybeth's jaw dropped and to prove the point I said, "See?"

She snapped out of her stupor, and started glaring at me, she really seemed to like doing that. "Fine, then you are not part of my imagination." She paused. "Then, what are you?"

"Ah," I replied, "that is the question."

"I don't care about questions, I want answers!" she snapped back confused.

"I guess I am what you might call… a ghost." She paled and I continued, "but that is not technically accurate. I am more of a shadow. I had a life, then I died."

She rolled her eyes. "Great, so I am haunted by a ghost."

"Not exactly, see nobody can see me but you, but I do have some form of a corporeal body."

"So then what are you doing here?"

"That is more simple. I am here to help you."

"Why? I don't need any help. I am perfectly fine."

To emphasize that point, she crossed her arms and walked to her bed and sat down. I glanced at her skeptically. "Didn't you say earlier that you were lonely?"

"Yes," she paused before continuing, "but that was earlier, and this is now. And now I am fine."

"That's not what I see."

"Well," she said getting defensive, "What do you know?"

"What I know, is that I had a choice." At this I became serious, "continue on and let my life be meaningless, or, become a shadow and try to change yours. Obviously, I choose the latter."

"And what a fine job you are doing," she replied sarcastically. I nodded and took a few steps closer to her before saying,

"Now you have a choice, you can accept me as part of your life and I can be your friend. Or, you can choose to ignore me, I will follow you, but stay in the shadows. Your choice."

She mulled it over, "So my options are to either have an imaginary friend, or an invisible stalker?"

I pretended to think for a moment. "Those particular words weren't in my job description, but if you want to be negative about it, sure."

She threw me a withering glare. "It has nothing to do with being negative. It has everything to do with being crazy."

"So, you choose…?"

"Neither! You are crazy! Go back to where ever you came from."

"Unfortunately, I cannot. You have two choices, there is no third option."

"Fine! Then I choose the second option. Anything to make you stop talking!"

"Fine, then. I will see you around," I replied as walked back to the doorway and leaned against the wall.

She rolled her eyes, walked to the door, and as she opened the door she said, "I have to go to dinner. Bye Kendra!"

 _Will the torture never end,_ I thought as I followed her out the door. "It's Kendrith!" I yelled at her down the stairs.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, I watched Maybeth. It's not as creepy as it sounds, I mean, it is my job. But I stayed in the background, as I had told her. Her life might have been amusing, if it hadn't been so painful to watch. No matter how fiery she had acted when we first met, she was shy and extremely awkward at school. She had seemed so confident when I first met her. But put her in a large crowd and she was the definition of uncomfortable. Slowly I realized that perhaps she acted this way because either she just wasn't good around a lot of people or maybe she just didn't want to be rejected, like she was when her parents left her.

Every day, I watched her go through the same routine at school. She, of course, would see me and ignore me. I saw her go to her locker and ignore her locker mates. I saw her walk through the halls and whenever someone would wave or even look at her, she would hide her face in her hair. She never spoke in class unless she was required to. The only time she would look straight at someone was when she saw "the guy". But if he started to look at her, she would look right away.

Once I noticed this, I tried to listen to the guy's conversations, try to pick up on what he thought of her. His friends thought that she was crazy, after all she never talked to anyone. But he was interested. He thought that she was shy and he wanted to know more about her, after all he would catch her staring at him almost every day. After two weeks of watching her basically nonexistent social life, I decided to start giving her advice. I would tell her to smile, say hi, participate in class. She continued to ignored me. It went on like this for a month.

It would have gone on longer, but I realized that it was time for her to break out of her shell. I waited till we were alone in her room. Mainly because that was really the only time she would talk to me. When we got into her room she went to lay down on her bed and I sat at the foot of it. I proceeded to say her name repeatedly until she looked up at me.

"What?!" she said exasperated, sitting up to look at me.

"Nothing…" I responded in a teasing innocent tone, "just that I heard your 'boyfriend' talking about you earlier."

She straightened up, I could a see little of her normally fiery self coming through as she threw a suspicious glance at me. "He is not my boyfriend. I have never even talked to him."

"You don't talk to anyone." I waved an arm, dismissing the excuse. "And besides, just the fact that you know who I am talking about suggests that you want him to be your boyfriend."

She crossed her arms. "I don't want a boyfriend." She paused cautiously before continuing, "But just out of… curiosity, what did he say?"

I laughed, "Right, you're 'just curious.' He thought that you were shy, and he was wondering why you would stare at him." I shook my head, "Boys, so oblivious at that age."

Maybeth looked at me as she raised her eyebrows, "Weren't you at that age at some point?"

"Of course, I told you that I made many mistakes in my lifetime. Some of them occurred at that age."

She laughed mockingly, "Who knew that Mr. 'Suave' here could be awkward?"

I sighed and rubbed my temples, apparently shadows could get headaches. I realized helping her was not going to be easy. I tried to think. She never listens to anything I say, so how am I supposed to get her to talk to this guy? Then I had an idea! "You know; it is a shame that you don't talk to him."

My brain raced to try to think of something that she found interesting. "I heard that he listens to a lot of good music, and that he loves to talk about it with people…" I paused before continuing slowly. "But then again maybe it is good that you don't try talk to him, you would probably just stand there and stare and not even be able to get a word out. You would just completely embarrass yourself in front of him."

She snapped to stand up and glared at me straight in the eye. Obviously, my baiting worked, she said "I could talk to him if I tried, I just never have."

"Really?" I stared right back at her, "I don't think you could, after all I have never seen you even talk to any student at school before."

Oh, she was furious now, my plan had succeeded! She replied angrily "I can too talk him, or anyone! I just choose not too!"

Time to reel her in. "Hmm, I don't believe you. Prove it."

"I will! Tomorrow at lunch, I will talk to him, and I WILL prove you wrong!"

It would appear that I had, in some weird form, forced her out of her shell. Now all I had to do was to make sure that she kept her promise tomorrow. The best way to do that was to keep her angry, luckily that was one of my favorite things to do. So I leaned back all casual, and said, "No. You won't."

Boy, was she mad. She straighten up, and to my surprise and hers, slapped me. I guess she did not expect to make contact, after all I was some sort of ghost. Then, shaking off her confusion, she stood up and walked straight out of her room to go to dinner without a backwards glance, even though it didn't start for another hour.

* * *

The very next day, things were going pretty normal. She was ignoring everyone, unless she was asked a direct question by a teacher. I, of course, the ever-helpful shadow, was giving her advice, which she would promptly ignore.

That is, until lunch, as she walked into the cafeteria, and started to head towards her usual table in the corner, I decided that it would be a good idea to remind her of her promise to 'prove me wrong,' and so I said, as I followed her. "Hey, hey, Maybeth, hey, guess what?" Maybeth turned around to look at me. "You are proving me right. I knew that you never talk to him. Gosh, I just love being right. It just fills me with a sense of glee, you know? Oh, wait, you wouldn't know because I was right and you were wrong, I guess you are a chicken and are too scared to talk to him!"

Of course, as soon I as soon as I said this I braced myself for a slap, which I did not receive. Instead Maybeth, after throwing me a glare, straighten up, looked around quickly, and changed direction, heading straight for the boy's table. I felt a sense of accomplishment. Maybeth sat down at the table where the boy was, turned to him and said "Hi."

 **Thanks for reading guys! hope you enjoyed! Please R &R**


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